The Technical Core will deliver laboratory computing and engineering support to the projects of the junior investigators in the Center for Perception and Communication in Children through a staff skilled in research programming and signal processing. The proposed projects in children with normal hearing and children with hearing loss will address theories and experiments on hearing, speech perception, language development, auditory-visual signal processing, and interactions of vestibular and visual function. The programming staff of the Technical Core will support the proposed experiments in procedures for stimulus presentation and recording of acoustical, visual and vestibular-related signals, and will assist the investigators in data analyses. The Technical Core will develop an Auditory-Visual Core Facility for communications research using human subjects, which will enable precise experimental control over spatial and temporal variability in auditory and visual stimuli. The staff will include architectural acousticians to consult with junior investigators on the design and interpretation of experiments requiring the systematic variation and/or measurement of room acoustical effects. This multi-user auditory-visual room facility will have unique capabilities for addressing theories of communications research in children. The Technical Core will serve as an innovative resource of skilled programmers and engineers, and will support investigators' research in its Auditory-Visual Core Facility.